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States Target School Cell Phone Use At least four states have banned or severely restricted the use of smart phones in schools in the current legislative biennium. Florida became the first state to do...
Compounded Weight-Loss Drugs Creating Headaches for State Regulators With popular weight-loss drugs like Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy in short supply, many doctors, pharmacies and other providers have...
In their seminal book on the American health care system, legendary investigative reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele offered a disturbing metaphor for the illogical nature of medical pricing...
PA Lawmakers Pass Bill Regulating PBMs The Pennsylvania legislature passed a bill ( HB 1993 ) aimed at increasing oversight of pharmacy benefit managers. If signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), the measure...
In a sign of the times, states have begun pursuing bills that require disclosure of the use of artificial intelligence. In March, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed SB 149 , making the state the first...
The board of directors of OpenAI, developer of ChatGPT, announced on the company’s blog last week that its CEO Sam Altman would be stepping down. The blog post said the company had conducted “a deliberative review process” and “concluded that he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.”
Shortly after the announcement, the company’s chairman and cofounder, Greg Brockman, quit in protest. He later posted information suggested Altman’s ouster had been orchestrated by the company’s chief scientist, Ilya Sutskever. Other accounts suggested Sutskever and Altman disagreed about the company’s ability to safely develop more advanced AI technology. (CNBC, WIRED)
Legislation (SB 454) has been prefiled for Florida’s 2024 session that would require social media companies to protect children from content that “promotes, glorifies, or facilitates grooming, solicitation, child pornography, or other sexual exploitation or abuse.” The bill would require social media companies to build age verification and parental controls into their platforms, as well as employ algorithms capable of identifying predatory or inappropriate behavior involving minors. (FLORIDIAN PRESS, STATE NET)
Michigan lawmakers sent a package of bills (HB 5141, HB 5143, and HB 5144) addressing the use of artificial intelligence in elections to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D). The measures require disclosure of the use of artificial intelligence in political advertising, define artificial intelligence and prohibit the intentional distribution of “materially deceptive media,” also known as a “deepfake.” (MICHIGAN ADVANCE, STATE NET)
The Ohio Senate unanimously passed a bill (SB 29) that would prohibit technology providers under contract with Ohio schools from selling or sharing student data. If a contract ended, providers would be required to return or destroy the data they’d collected. (STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU, STATE NET)
—Compiled by SNCJ Managing Editor KOREY CLARK
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